The Lizard King
The Lizard King is a story written by the wiki founder. It is the first story in the second part of The Mammal Wars and introduces the only three reptiles in the series: Bastamander and Ostesooks who eventually become allies to Seslinian and the fox's sole reptilian enemy Zautsuar. It is also the first of four stories in The Mammal Wars that does not feature Seslinian along with "The Eye of the Tiger" trilogy. Synopsis In one of four stories that does not feature Seslinian, the Reptile Wars fought in the East seem to carry to the West. The battle in question does not take place in Buckinghamshire but instead takes place two counties away in Hampshire. The combatants: A Komodo Dragon who will evolve into one of Seslinian's reptile allies Bastamander and his nemesis Zautsuar for the title of "The Lizard King". Plot Following the capture of Forbflaith Hennessy by PHANTOM in Seslinian vs. Zebiccoon, the Women of the Night are forced under the same strictly clandestine conditions as the Vixen criminal organization in the events after Stranger of the Past in the East and Return to Buckinghamshire in the West as a combination of the police coming for them, and PHANTOM coming for them. The Women have also been forced to move to another location, but are hindered by the fact that the United Kingdom has police searching everywhere for them so their leader Karen Armstrong is forced to move the Women out of Buckinghamshire and onto the South coast to Hampshire, specifically to the city of Southampton where they are placed under virtual house arrest at the Bargate: They cannot go out in their normal clothes, carry out any robberies and one of their bankrollers and probably their ''only ''bankroller is in PHANTOM captivity. This in turn means that the Women miss the rise of another kaiju in the United Kingdom. Not in Southampton, but in Winchester after a Black Mamba snake escapes from the Marwell Zoo; in Southampton however, PHANTOM use the Women's house arrest to their advantage and in the process, storm the Bargate, take all the Women and put them on a truck to take out of the country. But the journey is delayed by the arrival of another kaiju: The so-called "Lizard King" of Hampshire; a Komodo Dragon known as Bastamander who arrives to confront the Black Mamba who reveals itself as Ostesooks; the pair fight which results in the snake supposedly winning after spitting venom into Bastamander's eyes, causing blindness but the Komodo ends the fight after regaining his vision and in doing so, grabs Ostesooks and holds him over his own head, Bane style, and slams him into a series of electric pylons plunging Southampton into darkness. Meanwhile, the fate of the Women of the Night is revealed: The truck takes them first to the Estonian capital city of Tallinn, then to the PHANTOM compound in Siberia where the women are brainwashed in a different way to Forbflaith; instead, they are incarcerated in floating cyndrical cells and have helmets lowered onto their heads and brainwashed. On the other side, the women join the other female composed criminals from Eastern and Western Europe that have also been brainwashed to serve PHANTOM (Forbflaith is not among these, because she has been imprisoned with common women). In Southampton meanwhile, Bastamander threatens to keep Ostesooks on the pylons until he accepts that the Komodo is the lizard, to which the Black Mamba accepts and despite their vicious fight, Bastamander tells him: "I would expect you to kneel before me, but you forget Ostesooks. I am a reasonable Lizard King as I always have been; certainly more reasonable than the supposed King of the Fells who resides in the Lake District, and so I suggest an alliance." Ostesooks accepts, and despite their newly made alliance the pair go back to their respective zoos; but what they don't know is that the whole thing was watched by a shadowy figure who tells Bastamander: "You call yourself The Lizard King and propose an alliance with an unworthy opponent? You disappoint me, Bastamander. Soon you will fight someone who is your superior!" As Bastamander returns to his exhibit which he gets all to himself, he is shocked to learn that another lizard has taken it over where it continues to slander Bastamander, believing him to be unworthy of "The Lizard King" title that is bestowed on him, both by himself and indeed the general public. When Bastamander demands to know who the lizard is, the Lizard reveals itself and replies: "Your superior, Bastamander and the true Lizard King! I am Zautsuar!" Bastamander, naturally, refuses to believe such a claim and believes he is the one true Lizard King, having lived in Hampshire for a much longer period of time that Zautsuar who is believed to be in the United Kingdom for about two weeks or so. The Water Monitor further rubs salt into the wound by claiming that the only reason that Bastamander has fought and killed other opponents in his exhibition is because they were unworthy. The Komodo eventually decides on combat to settle the score as to who is the real Lizard King to which Zautsuar accepts...then promptly vanishes to Bastamander's disgust. At least, the Komodo thinks he vanishes. Zautsuar's voice however tells Bastamander that he understimates him and attacks the Komodo like a lion attacking a gazelle. He then asks Bastamander: "If I was merely a pretender to The Lizard King title, could I do this?" "This" being bringing the animals of the New Forest Wildlife Park, especially the reptiles apart from his opponent, under his control and having them attack Bastamander. As Bastamander fights off his enemies, Zautsuar flees the scene and the zoo. Or so Bastamander thinks. In fact, Zautsuar is still in the zoo and the Komodo runs right past him causing the Water Monitor to blow his cover and attack the Komodo with laser eyes, sending Bastamander flying into customer service sending tickets and money flying everywhere with one cash machine even landing on top of the Komodo seemingly concussing him. But beneath the money, Bastamander blasts Zautsuar with his own energy blasts sending Zautsuar flying before the Komodo grabs him and throws him back into the zoo. And once again, Zautsuar flees into the zoo; right back to where he and Bastamander first met: The latter's exhibit. However, despite apparently fleeing from battle, Zautsuar does not flee and instead lures Bastamander to his exhibit. There, he feigns cowardice in an attempt to make Bastamander let him live, which the Komodo does under one condition: He is to leave the United Kingdom and never comes back; but Zautsuar refuses and the pair fight a duel which results in the Water Monitor being thrown out of Bastamander's exhibit into another exhibit leaving him with glass shards embedded in his back. Zautsuar still stands from the fight telling Bastamander that they may have just met, but the Komodo isn't getting rid of him that easily to which Ostesooks agrees after coming out of the shadows. He also suggests that they leave Southampton given that they have practically fought all they want to in the zoo; Zautsuar proceeds to attack Bastamander again and get him on his back, but the Water Monitor is attacked by the Black Mamba who, surprisingly, does not induce its venom into him. Either that, or Ostesooks does not know that Zautsuar is immune to venom. Along with his rival and the snake he called "an unworthy opponent", the Water Monitor is transported out of Southampton and into the civil parish of Bentworth where he and Bastamander undergo a much more physical fight that the duel they fought at the zoo which results in a fleeing family from Bentworth Hall (presumably residents or tourists) unknowingly starting a fire in the house and the destruction of its East Wing. Bastamander proceeds to also try to kill Zautsuar by pushing the Water Monitor into the house causing it to collapse on him, but Zautsuar is unnerved and tries to drown his opponent in a nearby pond. Only the timely intervention of Ostesooks saves Bastamander's life and together, they use their venom to defeat Zautsuar and make him disappear from Hampshire and indeed the UK. With the defeat of Zautsuar, Bastamander decides to leave Hampshire for good and let another reptile take his place as "The Lizard King" that is well known in Hampshire, this time as an exhibition (though Bastamander keeps his self proclaimed title). Though Ostesooks protests that with his decision, Bastamander is essentially homeless, the Lizard tells the Black Mamba to come with him and both head into the sunset. Original draft When The Mammal Wars was in production, The Lizard King was like many stories written by the wiki founder: It contained a number of differences that were omitted from the final version of the story. Before the story was written, the story was originally written to include Seslinian and Mallauxula with the pair coming across Bastamander. In the story, Bastamander wanted the fox's help in defeating Zautsuar who called himself the titular "Lizard King", but the foxes would be unsure about his trustworthiness. As well as that, the story included Bastamander on his own while his sidekick Ostesooks would be included in another scrapped story titled "Two Reptiles and a Jackal" which was replaced by the series' feature story The PHANTOM Invasion which pits Seslinian against all of his enemies with the aid of all his allies. The original draft was scrapped because the wiki founder felt it underwhelming and, like many other stories the wiki founder scrapped such as The Two Tigers, Two Reptiles and a Jackal and Devil Sins (or what is now The Sins of Doom), it was also scrapped because of difficulties in getting a story plot.Category:Literature